Going into my first Ironman I definitely had mixed feelings about how the race would pan out. If I would get my nutrition right, would I be able to pace myself throughout the day so as to not burn out and what would the weather do to affect my race.
Walking to the swim I could see the water was starting to chop up. It honestly wasn’t bothering me though, I was just thinking thank god its not salt water ill be choking on (swimming is not my strongest discipline). The swim start was pretty chaotic. For a good 10minutes it felt as though people were swimming on top of you, so I was just trying to control my breathing and not get hit too many times. Once around the first of the two lap course the field had started to spread out and I was feeling comfortable with my pace.
Out of the water and into T1 I spent far too much time mucking around with my Garmin watch but it was something that was important to me to ensure that I paced myself on the bike as I have a habit of bashing the bike and not leaving enough for the run. This might work in the past with an Olympic race where the run is only 10km but I knew 42km would be a little different.
The bike was brutal with high winds from start to finish. The bike however is my strongest discipline so I tried to use that to my advantage. Rather than trying to go as fast as I could with the tail wind I tried to reserve some energy for the head wind on the other side of the lake which I knew would suck a lot of energy out of riders. As I turned into the head wind at Cromwell I couldn’t believe just how tough the head wind was. My speed was in the high 40kms on the other side of the lake and now it had dropped below 20km/hour. I put my head down and focused on trying to keep a steady cadence. I soon started to pass riders on the way to Tarras.
Coming into T2 I was third women off the bike and knew the run would be tough. Previously my longest run only being 26km, it was important to start off slow. For the first lap I focused on pacing myself sticking to my pre race strategy. It was important to ease my legs into the run so that my injuries did not flare up. Sure enough my legs held out. On to the second lap I just managed to hold my form but at a slightly slower pace and finished the run in 3 hours 56minutes. A time I was pleased with for my first marathon and longest run ever. My choice of Newton Stability Racers was perfect for race day and can not wait to race in them again.
I finished in 11 hours 6mins for my first Ironman, many of the professionals said that this was the hardest race of their career.
I was the first female amateur home with an overall placing of 5th. Recovery is going well and my next major race is the Challenge Cairns Half Ironman in June which I hope to race as a professional. Watch this space…
A big thank you to friends and family that came to support me on the day as well as my sponsors R & R Sport and Newton.
Happy Training…Tams
